News:2009:Energy Storage

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2009

Batteries > Lithium Ion > "Home Batteries" to power houses for a week - Panasonic has announced plans to create 'home batteries.' They are lithium-ion batteries large enough to power a house for a week, making energy sources such as solar and wind power more feasible. Also, you can buy energy when it is cheapest, and don't need to worry about power outages anymore. (Nexus404; Dec. 24, 2009)

Batteries > A Quantum Leap in Battery Design - A "digital quantum battery" concept proposed by a physicist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign could provide a dramatic boost in energy storage capacity over lithium ion batteries by several orders of magnitude. The concept calls for billions of nanoscale capacitors. (MIT Technology Review; December 21, 2009) ('PhysOrg)

Nanotech / Batteries > Batteries Made from Regular Paper - A group of Stanford University researchers have shown that ordinary paper can be turned into a battery electrode simply by dipping it into carbon-nanotube inks. The resulting electrodes, which are strong, flexible, and highly conductive, might be used to make cheap energy storage devices to power portable electronics. (MIT Technology Review; Dec. 9, 2009)

Featured: Solar / Storage > Magnesium Energy Cycle for fossil fuel replacement - Professor Yabe of Tokyo Tech is heading the development of a process that combines magnesium and water to produce high energy steam and hydrogen, which is burned to produce additional high energy steam to power an engine with no harmful emissions. The magnesium oxide by-product is reduced back to magnesium through a solar powered laser process to be reused. (PESWiki; Nov. 10, 2009)

Solar > Concentrated / Storage > Solar power generation around the clock - SolarReserve is developing a solar power system that can store seven hours' worth of solar energy by focusing mirrors onto millions of gallons of molten salt, allowing the plant to provide electricity 24 hours a day. The 150-megawatt plant will include 4.4 million gallons of molten salt. (PhysOrg; Nov. 5, 2009)

Capacitors > Electric Ultracapacitor Buses Becoming More Feasible - China and Sinautec have been testing a fleet of electric buses equipped with ultracapacitors for quick recharging and zero emissions… and so far it works. Though having a quick charge time (~ 5 min.), these ultracapacitors need to be recharged (every 3.5 miles with air conditioning; 5.5 miles without a/c), requiring numerous charging stations; and the bus only goes 30 mph. (Gas 2.0; Oct. 21, 2009)

Storage > Compressed Air > Hydraulic Storage using Coastal Salt Domes - Hydraulic and air-pressure based power stations respond more easily to sudden and extreme fluctuations in demand for power. Salt domes that are located very deep in the earth's bedrock and that measure several miles in vertical height by up to a mile in diameter would be suitable to store pressurized natural gas or compressed air. (Energy Pulse; Oct. 9, 2009)

Hydrogen > Storage > Recyclable Hydrogen Fuel Tanks - Researchers in several U.S. National Laboratories have developed a series of reactions for refueling the high-density hydrogen-storage material ammonia borane at lower temperatures through a process that consumes much less energy. (MIT Technology Review; September 8, 2009)

Storage / Contests: Hydrogen > Storage > DOE launches $1 million Hydrogen Storage Prize - After trying to cut research funding by hundreds of millions for hydrogen technology (most of which was restored by Congress), the Department of Energy has announced a $1 million prize for a hydrogen technology breakthrough. The contest seeks an entry that will improve current hydrogen storage issues, involving highly-pressurized tanks. (AutoBlog; August 26, 2009)

Storage > Capacitors / Plug-ins > Ultracaps Could Boost Hybrid Efficiency - Energy storage devices called ultracapacitors could lower the cost of the battery packs in plug-in hybrid vehicles by hundreds or even thousands of dollars by cutting the size of the packs in half, made more feasible by advances being made in the industry. (MIT Technology Review; August 20, 2009)

Top 100: Storage > Capacitors > EEStor > Who Killed the Electric Gas Tank? - A somewhat skeptical look at EEStor, which says they can make "power storage devices" (not technically batteries, more like peculiar capacitors) that can hold 10x more power than advanced lithium ion cells. These "electrical energy storage units" will be lighter than the most advanced batteries in the world, can charge in minutes and will last forever. (The Oil Drum; July 15, 2009)